Update: Gwatney is reportedly in critical condition. The gunman, who remains unidentified, was shot dead following a police chase.

Update: Bill Gwatney died at 3:39 pm local time. The gunman’s motive is still unknown, but he reportedly pointed a gun at the building manager at the nearby Arkansas Baptist headquarters saying, “I lost my job.” Gwatney owned some car dealerships in the area, and there was speculation that the gunman may have been a former employee. But police have determined that the shooter was not a former employee.

Nice job NOT noting that the shooter is believed to be a recently-fired employee of one of Gwatney’s car dealerships, which recently went through a confirmed round of layoffs.

Granted, that reality doesn’t give you the “conservatives hate liberals” political talking points you prefer (nor did the fact that the TN church shooter happened to specifically target his ex-wife church), but hey, life can’t always be as cut-and-dried as you’d like.

“..the suspect was a former employee of a Gwatney car dealership. News reports are identifying him as Tim Johnson, 50, of Searcy. According to one report, unconfirmed he was a body shop worker at a Gwatney dealership in Sherwood. A woman who answered the phone there hung up after issuing a no comment to a question.”

Another news outlet was told by a cop that he wasn’t an employee, but you don’t get the kind of detail above by accident.

I apologize if I lashed out unfairly; but I just fed the comments at Democratic Underground and Think Progress before coming here, putting me in a rather defensive mindset.

Confederate Yankee,
“Nice job NOT noting that the shooter is believed to be a recently-fired employee of one of Gwatneyâ€™s car dealerships, which recently went through a confirmed round of layoffs.”

Do you not understand the concept of “Breaking” News? Here, I’ll explain since you would rather jump to conclusions first rather than exercising a little bit of self-control.
Breaking news is something that just happened, or is currently happening. Breaking News means the story is fresh, and that not all the details are known. Breaking News is a story in progress, a story that can and will be updated as more information is available. I read the linked article when I first posted earlier this afternoon, and I read the article (now updated) just now. It mentions nothing about a dealership and an disgruntled ex-employee.
Neither does WREG-TV in TN (the 3rd google news result at the moment)here

So, essentially what you have, is gossip. If it’s confirmed, I’m sure BTB will update their BREAKING news story, as they have a penchant for accuracy in their blogging.

“Granted, that reality doesnâ€™t give you the â€œconservatives hate liberalsâ€ political talking points you prefer (nor did the fact that the TN church shooter happened to specifically target his ex-wife church), but hey, life canâ€™t always be as cut-and-dried as youâ€™d like.”

I love how the story here at BTB doesn’t mention anything about conservatives hating liberals, but you can’t help yourself, you have to toss in an unrelated bit of controversy.
Let me explain something else to you, the connection between these two shootings is the fact that people were shot, unprovoked, at places where you’d typically not find gunfire.

Both the shooter and Gwatney are dead, but all your sad self cares about is spreading venom.

Update: Bill Gwatney died at 3:39 pm local time. The gunman’s motive is still unknown, but he reportedly pointed a gun at the building manager at the nearby Arkansas Baptist headquarters saying, “I lost my job.” Gwatney owned some car dealerships in the area, and there was speculation that the gunman may have been a former employee. But police have determined that the shooter was not a former employee.

OK look isn’t the point that when Americans kill other Americans it’s “sad, tragic, senseless violence,” (e.g. Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, et.al.) but when “they’ (e.g. anyone deemed ‘foreign,’) a complex label in a “melting pot” democracy, is a terrorist who acted “out of hatred for our way of life.”

We have created a culture of vigilante violence and then we want to blame “them” for it. No. America needs to take a long steady gaze in the mirror of the soul.

1. Confederate Yankee is just taking the lead of the Merkins, I mean Malkins of the world in immediately establishing themselves as a**holes in this instance.

2. I was actually with an extended family member of Gwatney’s when the call came in, before we knew he had died. This is just awful all the way around, regardless of motive, and I would ask thoughts and prayers for the families.

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